BR Class 50 50031 Hood

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BRBritish Rail or British Railways Class 50 50031 Hood
Bridgnorth - 50031 arriving with GWR coaches.jpg
50031 Hood arriving at Bridgnorth
Built By English Electric Vulcan Foundry Works, Newton-le-Willows
Configuration Co-Co
Power type Diesel Electric
Status Under overhaul
Loco Number 50031
Other Numbers D431
History
Built 1968
Designed By English Electric
Type Class 50
1991 Purchased by The 50 Fund
2007 Main generator failure
2010 Returned to service
2016 Refurbished at RVEL, Derby
Technical
Length 68ft 6"
Weight 115t

Diesel Locomotives

50031 Hood is a BRBritish Rail or British Railways Class 50 diesel locomotive.

BRBritish Rail or British Railways Class 50

Fifty English Electric Type 4The British Railways classification for diesel locomotives of 2000 bhp to 2999 bhp (later BRBritish Rail or British Railways Class 50) diesel locomotives were built by English Electric at their Vulcan Foundry Works plant in Newton-le-Willows between 1967 and 1968. When built they were numbered in the D4xx series. They later became BRBritish Rail or British Railways’s Class 50, being allocated TOPSTotal Operations Processing System, an American computer system adopted by BR from the late 1960s to number and manage rolling stock. numbers in the 50xxx series. The class was nicknamed “Hoovers” because of the distinctive sound of the inertial air-filters with which the locomotives were originally fitted.

Initially the locomotives were used to haul express passenger trains on the West Coast Main Line (WCML) between Crewe and Scotland; that section not then being electrified. This often entailed ‘Multiple Working’, with two locomotives under control of a single driver.

By 1974 the northern WCML had been electrified, and the Class 50 fleet was being transferred to BRBritish Rail or British Railways’s Western Region to work main line passenger services out of London Paddington.

The Class 50’s did not originally carry names, but in the late 1970s BRBritish Rail or British Railways agreed to their being named after Royal Navy vessels with notable records in the First and Second World Wars.

Withdrawal of the class began in the early 1990s.

50031 Hood in Service

D431 entered service at Stoke in July 1968, having been built as English Electric Works No 3801/D1172. Less than a year later she was derailed at Lancaster whilst in charge of a parcels train. In May 1973 D431 was transferred to Crewe, being re-numbered 50031 in February 1974. Following electrification of the WCML, 50031 moved to Plymouth Laira, moving again to London’s Old Oak Common in May 1980.

In June 1978, 50031 was named Hood after HMS Hood, the Royal Navy’s last battle cruiser. Commissioned in 1920, HMS Hood was sunk by the German battleship Bismarck in May 1941. 50031 was withdrawn from service by BRBritish Rail or British Railways on 5th August 1991.

50031 Hood in Preservation

50031 was purchased for preservation in near operational condition, having only minor faults when withdrawn. After initial repairs were completed at St Leonards, '31 was moved to the Severn Valley Railway where it worked the first preserved class 50 hauled train to carry fare paying passengers.

In November 1997 Hood was the first mainline-certified preserved class 50 to haul a main line railtour, “The Pilgrim Hoover” from Birmingham International to Plymouth via the South Devon Banks.

50031 was sent to RVEL, Derby for refurbishment in June 2015. On 11 April 2016, it was revealed that the locomotive had been repainted in a fictitious BR Inter-City livery, with the locomotive returning to the SVRSevern Valley Railway on 13 April 2016.

Links

Class 50 Alliance web site
50 Fund web site (still maintained)

See also

Diesel Locomotives
List of preservation groups